


Caught in a Storm

by Evilchuckles



Series: Miss Gingerpaws Series [14]
Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Humour, M/M, Near's dark past, Romance, Sappy, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-08-01 04:27:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16277795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evilchuckles/pseuds/Evilchuckles





	Caught in a Storm

“Gevanni, it’s raining.”

“Yes, I had noticed.”

“It’s raining very hard.”

“It is. Yes.”

“And we don’t have an umbrella.”

Gevanni sighed. Near appeared to be under the impression that Gevanni hadn’t worked any of this out for himself and would somehow magically rectify the situation once he realised. Gevanni couldn’t decide whether that expectation was cute or irritating. 

Either way they were wet. Really wet. The kind of wet where it has rained right through to your underwear and there’s no point hurrying home because you can’t _get_ any wetter. 

Consequently, they were sauntering miserably through the park in a torrential downpour.

And, since the place was deserted (all the sane people and/or people with umbrellas having left) Gevanni took what he considered to be a golden opportunity to hold Near’s hand in public. 

Near gave him the tiniest little smile from under his dripping hair and Gevanni found himself grinning back. It had been a horrible six months, what with Near’s long absence on that mysterious case, and then the recent hideousness. Near hadn’t smiled much recently. He tightened his grip on Near’s wet fingers.

“Hey Near?” he said.

“Yes, Gevanni?”

“I love you.”

Near stopped walking. Gevanni did too, a little surprised because usually when he said that Near just rolled his eyes tolerantly or thanked him. But this time Near looked taken-a-back and very serious suddenly. He quietly held Gevanni’s gaze, apparently having forgotten the water dripping in his face, ignoring the violence of the storm as it beat down on them, and Gevanni was drowning in dark eyes (and also actually drowning, but that seemed unimportant at the moment).

“Do you?” Near asked, earnestly. “Still?”

“What do you mean?” Gevanni reached out to push a soggy curl out of Near’s eye and Near caught his wrist, kept Gevanni’s fingers in his hair. Gevanni’s heart started to pound.

“We’ve being together for two years now.” Near informed him. “And you know me a lot better now. I think when it started you...thought I was cute and strange but had no idea how hard it would be or how I can’t...I’m not...” Near made an exasperated noise and tried again, “Any fantasies you might have had about being with me must be dead by now. You know what I really am. There have been times when I know it’s been very difficult for you. I make a lot of mistakes. I’ve frequently upset your family. I’ve bought work home with us. Sometimes when there have been bad cases I’ve pushed you away and shut myself off. Mello always said that I’m selfish and childish and,”

Gevanni was choking by then and couldn’t listen any more. He reached out and pulled Near into his arms and hissed into his ear,

“Don’t talk about yourself like that! I don’t regret anything! I love you, I love you.”

Near looked up at him, “Even though I’m not normal?”

Gevanni laughed, “No, you’re not normal! You’re Near. I wouldn’t change a damn thing. I admit that I want to murder you sometimes. But I’m grateful for every day that you don’t meet some charismatic genius and run off with him.”

Near snorted, visibly relieved (to the extent that Gevanni had to wonder how long Near had being worrying about all this) and kicked him in the shin in an admonitory fashion, 

“I’ve told you before. I don’t want some clever freak like me. Why would I? When I can have you?”

Gevanni kissed him. Hard. Under the trees, in the rain, like something from a bad romantic comedy. And didn’t care. Near often made Gevanni feel like he was in a bad romantic comedy. Albeit one with an unusual amount of lego.

“Come on, we’ll catch our death.” Gevanni managed, reluctantly breaking the kiss. 

 

They tumbled through the front door, dripping on the carpet and went straight to the bathroom where they dumped their sopping clothes and turned on the hot water. A few minutes under the shower and Near had stopped shivering and Gevanni was smiling and they were kissing and Near had his arms around him, tight.

Gevanni suddenly remembered their first morning together. They had done it in the shower.

And, yes, back then Gevanni hadn’t known (although he had had dark premonitions) just how much work Near would be or how grim things would get occasionally. Hadn’t known that Near would accidentally out him to his mother. Or that Gevanni would end up being housekeeper, cook, chauffeur, PA and general dogsbody to an obsessive compulsive genius with the practical day-to-day skills of a squirrel.

But he also hadn’t known how wonderful it would be to wake up with him every day or how it would feel when Near told him he loved him for the first time.

Or how it felt when Near was inside him.

Or he was inside Near.

Or how it felt when they watched random sitcoms on Sunday afternoons and laughed and laughed and laughed.

 

Finally warm and dry they curled up on the sofa in a heap of towels and skin, and listening, a little sleepily, to the rain hammering on the windows. Gevanni had his head on Near’s chest (this required some contortion and for most of Gevanni’s legs to be hanging over the end of the sofa but was entirely worth it) and Near was curling his finger in Gevanni’s hair just as he did in his own.

Gevanni felt perfectly content.

“How long have you been worrying about all that?” He asked, eventually, “What you said in the park.”

“Ever since that time you got so angry with me and we did it on the sofa.”

The sense of calmness melted away and Gevanni’s head snapped up. Horror swamped him. “That wasn’t about anger! Fuck, is that what you’ve been thinking? That I would be like that with you because...because I wanted to punish you?”

Near hesitated, a blush high on his cheekbones. “Not exactly. I mean, I know that you were just trying to get through to me. And you did the right thing. It worked. And you didn’t hurt me. But I thought you must have been very angry at the same time.”

“No! Not angry, _terrified_. Because I was losing you.”

“Oh.” Near sighed. “You really are very stupid sometimes. You weren’t losing me. I was losing myself.”

Gevanni bit his lip to stop it doing something mortifying like wobble.

“Did you think I was going to leave you?” Near asked.

Gevanni nodded. 

“I will never leave you.” Near told him, quietly. “You’ll be the one who leaves. One day.”

“Don’t be so fucking silly,” Gevanni said, taking hold of Near’s shoulders.

“But people always leave.”

And Gevanni’s whole soul went, _’Gevanni, you’re a total moron_ and started to smack him violently. 

Of course. 

Everyone had always left Near, hadn’t they? The family who had dumped him, gleefully, at Wammy’s aged five, because, “they didn’t want an autistic kid”. And then the family Near had created to fill the void; L the father who died. And Mello the almost-lover who had walked out on him after L’s death and left Near with no one. Left him to grieve alone and finish growing up alone. And then Mello had died too.

No wonder Near had assumed that Gevanni would fuck off as well, sooner or later. One way or another.

“Listen,” Gevanni said, intently, cupping Near’s face. “I will never willingly leave you. _Ever_. There is nothing you could do or say or cock up that would make me want to leave you. And I have absolutely no intention of getting myself killed. So you can trust me. You can trust me to stay.”

“Really?” Near asked.

“Really.” Gevanni smiled. And kissed him. All the while kicking himself internally for not working this out sooner. Had Near really spent the last two years waiting for it to end?

But then, if Gevanni was honest, he had been doing the same thing. Waiting for Near to work out that Gevanni was beneath him.

A burst of laughter escaped Gevanni’s mouth and Near jumped and pulled out of the kiss.

“Sorry,” Gevanni spluttered, “It’s just we’re both so...so...”

“Emu?” Near supplied.

Gevanni stopped laughing abruptly. “We’re...birds?”

“Is that not the term?” Near looked confused. “Emu?”

“Do you mean ‘emo’?” Gevanni asked, light dawning.

“Do I?”

“Yes, I think you do.” Gevanni started laughing again, hysterically this time.

And Near grinned.

And, still sniggering, Gevanni kissed him. And pushed him back on the sofa and touched his body, stroking and licking and biting until Near was boneless and relaxed and Gevanni was entering him slowly, eyes locked, hearts shuddering. And Near was moving his hips gently, like a wave breaking, and Gevanni was falling into pleasure and comfort.

And home.

Near wrapped his arms around him and kissed the side of Gevanni’s neck as Gevanni thrust.

“Gevanni...” he whispered, over and over, breathlessly. 

And he felt good and smelt good and his skin was soft and his body was hot and tight.

And...

And...

And when Near came, crying out and arching beautifully beneath him, Gevanni put his mouth against Near’s and said softly,

“ _I will never leave you_.”

And Near’s smile was like the sun coming out.


End file.
